Michael Robert Winner, (born Oct. 30, 1935, London, Eng.—died Jan. 21, 2013, London) British film director who made more than 30 motion pictures, ranging from the teen-oriented musical Play It Cool (1962) and the satiric farce Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) to the supernatural thriller The Sentinel (1977) and the Agatha Christie mystery Appointment with Death (1988), but was most closely identified with a series of violent action movies featuring actor Charles Bronson—Chato’s Land (1972), The Mechanic (1972), The Stone Killer (1973), and the first three films in the Death Wish series. After Winner obtained a degree (1956) in law and economics from Downing College, Cambridge, he began writing and directing documentaries, commercials, and cinema shorts. His made his first feature film, Shoot to Kill, in 1960 and his last, Parting Shots, in 1998. From 1994 he also contributed a weekly food and restaurant review column to The Sunday Times newspaper. Winner was the founder (1984) of the Police Memorial Trust, which organized the construction of a national monument honouring police killed in the line of duty; the memorial was unveiled in London in 2005.

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